Florida State and Alabama are preparing for one of the most hyped matchups in college football history. As the summer concludes, the Seminoles and Crimson Tide arrive into fall camp as national championship contenders.

Last season, Alabama fell seconds short of clinching back-to-back titles after suffering a devastating loss to Clemson in the national championship game. On the other hand, FSU held off Michigan in exciting fashion while claiming the Orange Bowl.

Both of these programs are amongst college football’s elite. The ’Noles have captured three national championships, 18 conference titles and remained in the top-five rankings for 14 consecutive years from 1987-2000.

Even more astonishing, the university has only had a football team for 70 years; playing their first game in 1947. For comparison, Alabama’s program has been playing football for the past 125 years.

Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher has compiled 78 wins and the 2013 national championship during his time in Tallahassee.(Photo: Ben Liebenberg/Associated Press)

The Crimson Tide boast 16 national titles, 30 conference championships and a distinctive history of being perched atop college football’s landscape. Alabama has appeared in 64 bowl games — the most in NCAA history — with 19 seasons in which they started 10-0. The Tide have a consistent and proud program.

At first glance, FSU and Alabama are a lot more connected to one another than one may think. Former Seminoles coaching legend Bobby Bowden grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and spent his freshman season playing for the Crimson Tide. Bowden also picked up some his coaching techniques from his friend, and legendary Alabama head coach, Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.

Later into his career as Florida State’s head coach, ’Bama would come calling. After the leading the ’Noles to a noteworthy win over Indiana in the 1987 Birmingham Bowl, Bowden met with Alabama team officials for an interview. Yet, he would depart Birmingham without a job offer, as the Tide hired another coach for the position.

In 1990, Alabama would go after Bowden once again. Famously, the legendary head coach was preparing to leave for Japan from the Los Angeles International Airport when he was called over the loudspeaker to take a phone call.

Bowden picked up the phone and was offered the head coaching job at `Bama. He declined to take the job and later cited that he felt like Florida State was his school and that it would be hard to surpass the legacy that his friend Bryant had created in Tuscaloosa when he could work on building one for himself in Tallahassee.

Bryant won six national titles while coaching Tide and had amassed a 323-85-17 record across his career.

Former Florida State coaching legend Bobby Bowden grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and spent his freshman season playing for the Crimson Tide.(Photo: Don Juan Moore/Associated Press)

Current FSU and Alabama head coaches, Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban, also have history. In 2000, Saban was the newly named head coach at LSU when he decided to hire Fisher as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

The two would coach together for the next five seasons before Saban left for the NFL, winning 48 games and a national championship in 2003. They would reconnect again in 2007, as Fisher interviewed for the head coaching job at UAB and was offered a contract after the interview.

Controversy arose when the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees vetoed the offer. Shortly thereafter, Saban reached out to Fisher again, this time to join him as a coach for the Crimson Tide. Fisher would decline the offer and instead opted to take the offensive coordinator job at Florida State under Bowden.

The rest is history.

Now, Fisher is primed to face Saban in their first matchup as head coaches. He brought Florida State out of the lost decade, won a national championship, and has won at least 10 games every season since he became the head man at FSU. Is it time for the pupil to become the master?